Toyota Trial: Transcript Reveals 'Task X' Clues

A Yes. This just uses an analogy and makes the point that, of course, software malfunctions. And we see it all the time in our daily lives whether it your laptop or your desktop, sometimes you have to reboot things, restart applications, et cetera.

It is a fact of life that software developers are well aware of, or should be well aware of that software malfunctions can occur. I don't know if you ever had the experience where is one app on your Smart phone is not working and the others are. And we all know, we are trained to reboot it. Just reboot it. Oh, you didn't get my phone call? Well, maybe your phone is not taking calls right now because of a software bug. That can happen in an iphone or an android. Even though you might be able to make outgoing calls, if one part of the software is not working, the rest is. So you reboot it and suddenly everything is fine.

The 2005 Camry has apps. They don't call them apps, they call them tasks. And so there are [REDACTED] tasks inside the engine. As an example, there is one task whose job it is to keep track of how fast the car is going. That is important, obviously, if you will have a cruise control feature because a cruise control needs to know not only what speed you would like it to be but what speed it really is.

Q Let me stop you right there.

MR. BAKER: Your Honor, my next question is going to involve some source code. So at Toyota's request, I think we need to clear the folks out of the courtroom again.

THE COURT: Is this going to be periodically, or is this the only time?

MR. BAKER: I hope this is the only time.

THE COURT: If not, I will just exclude everybody from this point on. You think this may be the only time?

MR. BAKER: I will transition into our nicknames for it so we don't have to do it anymore.

MR. BIBB (editor's note: J. Randolph Bibb, Jr., Attorney at Law, for the defendants): I think there is one other area that I noticed, but it is a long way from here in this slide show.

THE COURT: Again, if you do not have source code access, please exit the courtroom.

Q All right. Earlier we heard some testimony from Mr. Osawa, and he mentioned a couple terms that I believe are tasks names, and I want to ask you about those. He mentioned [REDACTED]. Is that a name for one of these [REDACTED] tasks?

A It is.

Q He also mentioned [REDACTED]. Is that also the name of a task?

A It is.

Q All right. And in terms of [REDACTED], do any of those characters have specific meaning to you or a programmer who is looking at this?

Actually, what this throttle position algorithm does is translate the pedal position (which is apparently determined by an unregulated analog voltage, corrected by the program, according to a separate article) into fuel and air delivery to the fuel injection system. When the car is not in cruise control. In cruise control, presumably the throttle angle is not examined at all, and the fuel/air command is supplied as a function of vehicle speed vs requested speed.

Worrisomely, brake application did not override these control signals if that control algorithm app died. *That's* the crux of the issue here, I think.

I have to agree that monitoring functions, especially in safety-critical systems, should be done independent of the control functions. A totally separate loop, software and also hardware.

What caused the so-called "stuck pedal" wasn't the issue in this case. At issue was the software controlling the electronic throttle control system.

As the expert witness explained, the software in electronic throttle control is responsible for performing the sparking and the throttle control.

But there is another part of the software that is looking at the driver controls-- looking at the accelerator pedal and cruise control. So there is a part of the software looking at what the accelerator pedal position is, is it down, is it up, how much down. Then that is translating that into a calculatedthrottle angle.

That malfunction was the crux of the issue that was argued in this trial.

It is true that the throttle function will be affected by the software malfunction, but why the throttle function is not being tested again in the worst case scenario again to justify the findings after Toyota Trial?

The expert witness aptly describes the Task X as "kitchen-sink" task. It is designed to do just so many thing. So what happens when the Task X does? So many things could go wrong, and one of which is a loss of throttle control. Talk about a bad design.